Hi. How are you? Great news. There is much in the sporting news to pick over today. Aaron Cruden for instance, missing the team flight to Argentina because he slept in. Manchester United lose to Wainuiomata or someone I’ve never heard of. Wellington lose their 6th straight game. Another fantastic game of league coming down to one point.
But, what caught my eye was the Mario Balotelli story. After Man U lost to Leicester City (I did know it after all), Mario tweeted “Man U…LOL”. This stirred up a hornets nest of racial and abusive tweets calling out the Italian international. Having read some of the tweets I would say I hope the poor bugger has thick skin. Disgraceful really. So, I watched the news and the story was inevitably on and there were calls for tougher laws around internet trolls. This made me think. Again! I hear you say!!!
Where were these calls when Charlotte Dawson committed suicide in February? What about Megan Meier? Who is Megan Meier? Exactly. She was a 14 year old girl who killed herself because of social media. My contention is that we will probably never get away from internet trolls. They come in many guises and because sports runs deep with people, like education and politics, they become detached from reality and strike out. If the likes of Mr. Balotelli want not to be the subject of the drivel that comes from the fingertips of these fucking clowns, perhaps they should not be on these platforms….don’t give them the pleasure. There is no way I forgive what they do. I have been the subject of it myself.
There is a well known golf instructor in the States who trolls the golf forums castigating those who dare contradict his thinking. He even has a lapdog who does the same. Both of them have had a crack at me because of the beliefs I hold in golf coaching. They even had a crack at one my friends who is quite possibly one of the most placid and friendly people on earth. It was a shame that the gentleman’s game of golf was brought to this level. The upshot was that my friend and I offered to meet them and have some ‘alone’ time to settle things down. No response.
These trolls are nameless faceless arseholes in the larger world of major sports and celebrity. They don’t mean anything. They aren’t valuable in any way. A general waste of skin. But, in this age of the internet and in particular social media, the mob mentality seems to be more and more common and anyone could be a troll. I’m not sure that the law can fix this problem, so we must. Mario, try not to say anything…at all.
mysportingvoice.com 